Third Aerosvit tournament underway in Foros

6/20/2007 – Over the past couple of years, the Aerosvit tournament at Foros, in the Ukraine, has become one of the strongest closed tournaments in the calendar. This year's third edition runs from June 17 – 30, and brings together a category 18 field. After two rounds, it is Alexey Shirov who leads, with a 2/2 start. We bring you photos and games.

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Third Aerosvit tournament underway in Foros

As in previous years, the event is taking place amidst scenic surroundings
at the Ukrainian town of Foros, near its more famous neighbour Yalta. The sponsorship
of Ukrainian airline Aerosvit has enabled the organisers to put together a 12-player
field, which boasts an average FIDE rating of 2694, the top seeds being
Svidler, Ivanchuk and Jakovenko. The field also includes Rublevsky and Shirov,
two of the second-round losers in the Elista Candidates matches, plus top young
star Karjakin.

The spectacular Crimean coastline has always been a favourite holiday destination
for Russians and Ukrainians. Here are some visual impressions of the region
(courtesy of the official web site):

A typically beautiful Russian Orthodox church

The hotel venue on the Black Sea coast

Some of the players at the opening ceremony: (seated, r-l) Shirov, van Wely,
Sasikiran and Dominguez in the front row, with Nisipeanu and Rublevsky visible
behind.

FIDE President Kirsan Illyumzhinov was the special guest at the Opening Ceremony.

The tournament got off to a bright start, with just four draws in the first
two rounds. Despite likely fatigue from the recently-concluded Candidates matches,
it was Alexey Shirov who took the early lead, after defeating Rublevsky and
Dominguez in the first two rounds.

Peter Svidler vs Pavel Eljanov in round one

Loek van Vely vs Alexander Onischuk in round two

Note how the players' names are written in Ukrainian script. Although based
on Cyrillic, this has a few differences, such as the use of the Roman letter
i. Other differences in Ukrainian transliteration result in such unfamiliar-sounding
names as Petro Svidler and Olexander Onischuk.

See also

12/30/2017 – The "King Salman World Blitz & Rapid Championships 2017" in Riyadh from Decemer 26th to 30th. At the half way point of the Blitz Championship, the defending champ Sergey Karjakin leads with 9 / 11. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is a half point back followed by Peter Svidler and a trio of Chinese: Wang, Ding and Yu on 8 / 11. In the Women's Pia Cramling has a full point lead with 9½ / 11. Watch live with Rounds 11 to 22 from 12:00 Noon CET (6:00 AM EST) on Saturday with commentary by E. Miroshnichenko & WGM K. Tsatsalashvili.

See also

12/6/2017 – Imagine this: you tell a computer system how the pieces move — nothing more. Then you tell it to learn to play the game. And a day later — yes, just 24 hours — it has figured it out to the level that beats the strongest programs in the world convincingly! DeepMind, the company that recently created the strongest Go program in the world, turned its attention to chess, and came up with this spectacular result.

Video

Former World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik liked to play the French and once described it as a 'difficult and dangerous opening'. But in this 60 minutes video IM Andrew Martin suggests an aggressive and little-used idea of the renowned attacking player GM Viktor Kupreichik to counter the French: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Be3!?. Andrew Martin uses the games of Kupreichik to show why this line could catch many French aficionados unprepared and is very dangerous for Black. Attacking players will love this line and the unusual complications that it promotes.